In 2025, I contributed vocals to a sound art installation project by Bill Orisich. Titled Plexus, or Sounds of the Underground, the premise of this installation revolves around the fascinating concept of trees and plants as social beings, based on insights from Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and Richard Powers’ The Overstory. These works highlight the intricate, often unseen relationships among trees and the ecosystems they inhabit, which thrive beneath the surface. This projects creates an immersive musical/sonic experience that reveals and celebrates the hidden communication networks within the forest. Stay tuned to Bill’s bandcamp site.
Photo by Kennst du schon die Umkreisel App? on Pexels.com
I am thrilled to have the score to this chant included in The Druids Book of Ceremonies Prayers & Songs Volume II, published by the Ancient Order of Druids in America.
I wrote this chant for the first Sun Spiral Grove Gathering in the summer of 2018. A group of us were gathering to perform a land healing ceremony. At that time, we collectively sang the melody of this chant, which is featured in the “Soloists” line. This line can be sung individually as you complete land healing work. While I have provided four verses, consider supplementing these versions with your own, following this template: I _________ the land; the land _________ me; our _________ intertwine infinitely. Truly, infinite versions of this chant exist! This chant can be a very powerful pledge to the land. It is, in effect, a marriage, a binding, with the land. To acknowledge that we exist in reciprocity with the land, that our actions are mirrored in the land, and that the health of the land is reflected in our own health, is a powerful step to strengthening our relationship with the earth and enacting our spirituality in both materially and energetically. In group ceremonies, I envision each verse being sung by a different soloist, while the rest of the group hums the chorus. Consider asking all members to write their own verse, and take turns making your pledges to the earth in song.
I am thrilled to have the score to this chant included in The Druids Book of Ceremonies Prayers & Songs Volume II, published by the Ancient Order of Druids in America. This chant was conceived on my drive home from the first Sun Spiral Grove Gathering in the summer of 2018. At the start of Druid ceremonies, we often center ourselves in the earth, sky, and waters around us. This chant is a song-version of this practice. When you sing this chant, pay close attention to your breath. Each phrase is meant to extend through a full exhale. Breathe deeply in, connecting with the earth beneath you, and then sing on your exhale the first phrase: breathing, we are one. Then take a second deep breath, this time connecting to the waters around you, whether they be a lake, a river, an ocean, or simply the respiration of plant life. Again, sing on your exhale the second phrase: breathing, we are one. The third breath will span two phrases. Connect to the sky above, and see the three realms – the earth, sea and sky – held in union by your own breath as you sing the final phrase, breathing, we are one, with the earth sea and sun. When sung multiple times, this chant with its intentional breath work, is meant to calm, connect, and center you in your practice and the living world around you. If you want to sing this chant individually, the alto part of this chant is the melody. This chant can also be used in group ceremonies, with additional harmonies for soprano and tenor voices. While there are three parts to this chant, the rhythm is the same for all three parts to entrain a group to become “one” at the start of a ceremony. Research has shown that a music tempo around 50–80 BPMs can induce a meditative state. The slower andante tempo in this chant – 90 beats per minute – is used to encourage both relaxation and a calm alertness, to transition the practitioner from the often hectic pace of mundane life to a slower, more intentional ritual consciousness.
In 2022, I joined musician Shelley Graff and her Singing Circle Sisters to record vocals for a couple of tracks on this album that features short, repetitive, women-centered chants that are accessible, empowering and healing! Shelley traveled to locations from coast to coast to record her original songs with Singing Circle enthusiasts who poured heir hearts and souls into these chants. Fifty-nine women from eight states came together to create a powerful singing community on the For All the Womyn CD.
I am thrilled to have the score to this chant included in The Druids Book of Ceremonies Prayers & Songs , published by the Ancient Order of Druids in America.
The chant “One with Nwyfre” was born from my Ovate work in the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD). Nwyfre is the word many Druids use to represent life force. I originally wrote this chant as a means to connect to and foster the flow of my own life source. Consider using this chant to center and ground yourself as part of the opening of a ceremony, as a daily practice to align with your own nwyfre, or to synchronize the energies of a group before engaging in deeper work. This chant is flexible enough for you to add your own qualities to it; substitute whatever words you like for peace and allow the quality of that word and what it represents to flow through you and bolster your nwyfre.
Loam is working on an album of chants. For now, enjoy this “rough cut” of “One with Nwyfre.”
I am thrilled to have the score to this chant included in The Druids Book of Ceremonies Prayers & Songs, published by the Ancient Order of Druids in America.
I wrote the chant “Singing up the Ley Lines” for the 2018 OBOD Mid Atlantic Gathering of US (or MAGUS). The theme was “Sacred Time, Sacred Space” and as part of this work, we wanted to re-enchant the land by establishing and co-creating a new ley line network across the land. Working in collaboration with the organizers of the event, I wrote this ley line chant, which we used in the opening of the ritual to raise energy and bring all ritual participants together in our shared intention. Consider singing this chant as you re-enchant your own sacred landscapes. Know that by doing so, you are both connecting with an inner grove of Druids who know and sing this song, as well as linking your sacred space to an international, energetic network of sacred landscapes. Follow the ley lines and see what you discover!
Loam is working on an album of chants. For now, enjoy this “rough cut” of “Singing up the Ley Lines.”
Loam Ananda 